By: Najla Alexander
Authorities in Morris County announced the arrest of Jose A. Lousa, age 60, of Mount Olive Township, in connection with maintaining a peer-to-peer explicit contact network and possession of explicit images of minors.
Morris County Prosecutor Robert J. Carroll said the defendant has been charged with one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child (Maintaining a Peer-to-Peer File Sharing Program of Explicit Images of Minors (CSAM) and one count of Endangering the Welfare of a Child (Possession of CSAM).
The investigation began when the United States Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations Newark – Child Exploitation Group identified possible CSAM on a BitTorrent site in Morris County, officials stated.
Authorities say BitTorrent is a Peer-to-Peer file sharing network.
Further investigation revealed numerous media files, officials say, each depicting the alleged explicit exploitation or abuse of a minor, were stored on the BitTorrent site.
Officials said the investigation further revealed that these files were accessible for download.
According to officials, it is alleged that BitTorrent was associated with the defendant’s residence.
Officials say further investigation revealed in excess of 1,000 items of explicit images of minors (CSAM) were available for download from the BitTorrent site.
The defendant was arrested on the above charges on December 7, 2023, officials stated.
Following his arrest, officials said, he was detained in the Morris County Correctional Facility pending a detention hearing.
Following a detention hearing on December 13, 2023, the defendant was released on Pretrial Monitoring Level Three, officials say
Additional conditions of his release include that the defendant is to have no internet access and no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, officials stated.